{"id":202544,"date":"2025-10-10T11:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202544\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:37:07","slug":"when-chimps-helped-cool-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202544\/","title":{"rendered":"When chimps helped cool the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

This roundup of The Conversation\u2019s climate coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the world mourns Jane Goodall, the pioneering chimpanzee scientist and campaigner who died last week aged 91, it\u2019s worth asking what chimpanzees can still teach us about climate change. They not only have a few tricks for surviving a warming planet \u2013 they\u2019ve also helped to cool it. <\/p>\n

Most of the world\u2019s 200,000 or so wild chimpanzees live in the huge rainforests of west and central Africa, the second largest in the world. <\/p>\n

As recently as 2,500 years ago, much of this rainforest had withered away, broken into scattered fragments by a sudden lengthening of the dry season. Yet within five centuries, the forest had largely recovered. <\/p>\n

Trees didn\u2019t do this by themselves.<\/p>\n

Chimpanzees, among other species, had acted as the forest\u2019s \u201cproto-gardeners\u201d<\/a>. That\u2019s according to Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a paleoecologist then the University of Cambridge (now at the University of Sussex). <\/p>\n

Chepstow-Lusty looked at the oil palm tree, which \u201cdemands a lot of light and so thrives in open areas or in the gaps created in forests when the canopy opens up rather than in the dense centre\u201d. This means it often acts as a \u201c\u2018pioneer species\u2019 allowing the forest to regrow\u201d.<\/p>\n

But, he notes a problem: the oil palm\u2019s large seeds are too heavy to be blown in the wind. \u201cThey therefore need to be dispersed in the poo of animals such as chimpanzees which are able to swallow the large seeds and for whom the bright orange flesh can be an important part of the diet. And this is how chimps and other seed-dispersers played a crucial role in regenerating Africa\u2019s rainforests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chimp<\/a><\/p>\n

Chimps will eat almost anything \u2013 but fruit is their favourite.
\n Sam DCruz \/ shutterstock<\/p>\n

Without chimpanzees, the forest would have taken far longer to recover \u2013 if it ever did. \u201cMaybe we need to consider the true value of chimp poo, and those that produce it\u201d, says Chepstow-Lusty.<\/p>\n

But if chimpanzees once helped the planet heal itself, today that partnership is under strain.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Chimpanzees once helped African rainforests recover from a major collapse<\/a><\/p>\n

Adaptation written in their genes<\/p>\n

Across Africa\u2019s mix of forest and savanna, chimpanzees have evolved with their habitats. Harrison J. Ostridge of UCL Genetics Institute and his co-authors recently wrote about their work with a team who collected faecal samples from \u201chundreds of wild chimpanzees across 17 African countries\u201d. <\/p>\n

They found different populations have developed distinct adaptations<\/a>: those in wetter regions have to survive infectious diseases, for instance, while others have to cope with life in hotter and drier open woodland.<\/p>\n

This, they suggest, means chimpanzee populations across Africa are \u201cnot interchangeable\u201d. Genetic diversity is typically a form of resilience, but as climate zones shift and habitats shrink, some chimpanzees may find themselves trapped in the wrong place. And while it takes thousands of years for genes to change, the climate is changing in decades.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Chimpanzee genes have changed over time to suit local conditions \u2013 new study<\/a><\/p>\n

Variable habits, variable behaviour<\/p>\n

If DNA adapts over millennia, behaviour can adapt within a lifetime. <\/p>\n

A team from UCL, Harvard and Liverpool John Moores wrote about their work compiling data from 144 wild chimpanzee communities across Africa\u2019s forests and savanna. They found populations that had learned to dig wells, or to take refuge from extreme heat in caves. Some chimpanzee populations used all sorts of tools, while others barely used any. <\/p>\n

The common thread was an adaptation to local circumstances<\/a>. \u201cChimpanzees meet variable habitats with variable behaviour\u201d, in their words. <\/p>\n

\"Chimpanzees<\/a><\/p>\n

Chimpanzees teach each other new tricks.
\n Paco Forriol \/ shutterstock<\/p>\n

This flexibility may help chimpanzees weather the next degree or two of climate breakdown. But behavioural diversity depends on a strong social life. Young chimps learn by watching others, by playing and imitating. And if that social culture is lost, so is some of their ability to adapt to climate change.<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Chimpanzees in volatile habitats evolved to behave more flexibly \u2013 it could help them weather climate change<\/a><\/p>\n

A cultural collapse<\/p>\n

That same UCL\u2013John Moores team have documented a \u201ccultural collapse\u201d in chimpanzees<\/a>. \u201cThe more that humans had disturbed an area\u201d, they write, \u201cthe less behavioural variants are exhibited by nearby chimpanzees\u201d. Animals are forced to forage in smaller groups, with less long distance communication through hoots or drumming on tree trunks. This \u201clowers the chance of learning socially from one another\u201d and makes it harder to spread any culture. <\/p>\n

Why does it matter, they ask, \u201cif the species is gradually merging into a single cultural entity that stretches all the way from Senegal to Tanzania\u201d? After all, most animals don\u2019t have distinct cultures.<\/p>\n

One reason is that a loss of social learning makes chimpanzees more vulnerable: \u201cA loss of behavioural diversity [could compromise how they respond] to changes in food availability and how they adapt to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:
\n A chimpanzee cultural collapse is underway, and it’s driven by humans<\/a><\/p>\n

Carrying on Goodall\u2019s legacy<\/p>\n

Jane Goodall bridged science and society in a way very few others have managed since. One of those few is Ben Garrod, a professor of evolutionary biology and science engagement at the University of East Anglia. A BBC television presenter and a primate scientist, he\u2019s worked with Goodall and her foundation and says we need more Jane Goodalls<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be countless ways we can carry on with Jane\u2019s legacy\u201d, he writes, \u201cbut one of the most powerful is to encourage more of us to make science accessible for all of us\u201d. <\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Why we need more Jane Goodalls<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This roundup of The Conversation\u2019s climate coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-202544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}